PCD (album)

After attracting media attention, Antin struck a joint venture with Interscope Records to develop the Pussycat Dolls into a brand, with Jimmy Iovine assigning the project to Ron Fair.

PCD exceeded industry expectations and became a commercial success, reaching the summit in New Zealand and peaking in the top-ten in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland.

[4] In 2003, Antin struck a joint venture with Interscope Records to develop the Pussycat Dolls into a brand, with Iovine assigning the project to Fair.

"[6] The auditions drew about 500 aspiring performers, of which two singers—Nicole Scherzinger and Melody Thornton—were recruited, joining Carmit Bachar, Ashley Roberts, Jessica Sutta and Kimberly Wyatt to form a new recording group.

[25] The post-disco "I Don't Need a Man" sharing the same "quasi-feminism" themes with "Beep", sees the group expressing disinterest in co-dependency towards a male partner.

[17] The standard edition's closing track, a cover of Nina Simone's "Feeling Good" was described as a "faux-jazz" version of the original song.

[12] Commercially, "Beep" became the Pussycat Dolls' third consecutive top-three single in Australia, Belgium (Flanders), New Zealand, the Netherlands, and Norway.

[36][39] The song was a commercial success, topping the charts of Austria and New Zealand,[31] where it became the Pussycat Dolls' fourth consecutive number and logged their twelfth week atop.

[42] "I Don't Need a Man" was the only single of the album not to impact US radio stations,[36] subsequently becoming their lowest charting song on Billboard Hot 100 at number 93.

[43] Compared to their previous singles, "I Don't Need a Man" was slightly less successful, reaching top-ten in Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom and top-twenty in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland.

[47] Following the release of "Don't Cha", it was reported they would appear at various radio shows across the United States, including Miami, Florida, Phoenix, Arizona and at the annual KIIS-FM's Wango Tango music festival.

[34] While closing their set with "Don't Cha", MTV's Brandee J. Tecson commented, "like a lot of the day's performers, the Dolls were newcomers to the Wango stage, but ended the night like veterans.

Borat (portrayed by Sacha Baron Cohen) introduced them as "international prostitutes" and performed "Don't Cha" with a house remix at the end.

[50] Couple of days later, the group travelled to Sydney, Australia for a three-day promotional trip that began with meeting four Australian Idol finalists.

[51] On December 7, 2005, the Pussycat Dolls performed at the annual KIIS-FM Jingle Ball at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California with some members wearing "festive candy-cane-striped belly shirts and red-and-green capri pants".

[56] "Buttons" was then performed on an episode of So You Think You Can Dance on July 13, 2006, and at the annual charity fundraiser event Fashion Rocks with rapper Jibbs on September 8, 2006.

On January 31, 2006, it was announced that the Pussycat Dolls would support the Black Eyed Peas' Honda Civic Tour, which started on March 21, 2006, in Fresno, California.

[62] Throughout June of that year, the Pussycat Dolls performed a combination of headlining and supporting shows for the Black Eyed Peas and Take That in Ireland, the Netherlands, Portugal, and the United Kingdom.

[63] In Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia the group caused controversy for failing to comply with local dress regulations and performing "sexually suggestive" routines.

[64] The Pussycat Dolls later supported ten additional Black Eyed Peas' shows in North America, which commenced on August 24, 2006, and concluded on September 8, 2006.

[58] In November of the same year, they embarked on their first headlining European tour until February 2007, visiting 21 venues in Germany, Austria, Ireland, and the United Kingdom.

[66][67] The album received further promotion in 2007 in North America, as they supported Christina Aguilera's Back to Basics Tour in 41 venues between February and May and headlined several shows in-between.

Erlewine opined that the great thing about the album are the producers and songwriters who are willing to play with the group's "hyper-sexual image, creating a sleek, sexy sound ideal for both nightclubs and strip joints".

[2] While Slant Magazine's Sal Cinquemani deemed group's image as "cartoonish", he was surprised that PCD's content wasn't filled with filler.

[71] Writing for the USA Today, Elysa Gardner acknowledged that "lead singer Nicole Scherzinger and at least a couple of her fellow Dolls have supple voices" despite their superficiality and the song's "insipid lyrics".

[72] Raymond Fiore of Entertainment Weekly also noted the Pussycat Dolls' flexible vocals, but felt the songs from A-list producers cannot "arouse her interest for a whole 45 minutes.

[73] A reviewer of The Ledger wrote that the album is "essentially a solo release" from Scherzinger while noting songs like "Right Now" "make it clear that she really needs to keep around those dancing, singing/not-singing gals.

[76] PCD debuted and peaked at number five on the US Billboard 200 with first-week sales of 99,000 copies, according to data compiled by Nielsen SoundScan for the chart dated October 1, 2005.

[79] PCD was released amidst an era of stagnant album sales due to the emergence of digital and physical piracy and a shift in consumer interest.

The album managed to remain within the top 50 for 45 weeks due to the strength of its first four singles, earning them a reputation among the century's few breakout success.